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Thursday, 25 August 2011

Two days ago I talked about Rowan Gormley's unique Naked Wines club as a rare example of genuine social marketing.

Lorraine Rogerson, who I see lives on the Turks and Caicos Islands, lucky beast, wrote on facebook saying, "I like Naked Wines, but I didn't realise they were a direct marketing success, just nice wines. Is that the point??"

My reply: "Not quite, Lorraine. A great many successes today rely on direct marketing, as all internet sales and messages are direct. In fact I can't think of many firms that don't use direct marketing - usually very badly.

What makes Rowan's business special is the idea behind it - of getting the customers to support wine-makers too small to afford big marketing by buying their stuff. It is genuinely a social approach. You can even become a Wine Angel."

I have interviewed Rowan for an hour as part of my Commonsense Marketing course. Fittingly the first time we ever met, a few years ago, we spent a fair amount of time drinking wine.

He really is one of the very few people who has a bona fide social ingredient in their business. Not just in sales, either. I believe that when he set up Naked Wines every one of his colleagues at his previous firm joined him.

By coincidence yesterday I saw James Brown who founded Loaded magazine make a hilarious speech here in Sweden in which he said one thing I profoundly agree with - that success is all about finding the right people.

He also said that "Luck is when ambition meets opportunity."

My partner Al who tries desperately hard to educate me about things like Adwords has a saying I love: "Failure cannot live with persistence."

Many years ago I asked Ken Roman, my boss at Ogilvy & Mather, what he thought made David Ogilvy so remarkable.

“I am pretty determined,“ he replied. “If something doesn’t work I keep trying for another year, then another, then another. I don’t give up easily. But David never gives up”.

And I recall that in a survey of chief executives not too long ago persistence was the most important reason most gave for success. Of course it helps if you know what you’re doing. Few marketers really do.

Two days ago I talked about Rowan Gormley's unique Naked Wines club as a rare example of genuine social marketing.

Lorraine Rogerson, who I see lives on the Turks and Caicos Islands, lucky beast, wrote on facebook saying, "I like Naked Wines, but I didn't realise they were a direct marketing success, just nice wines. Is that the point??"

My reply: "Not quite, Lorraine. A great many successes today rely on direct marketing, as all internet sales and messages are direct. In fact I can't think of many firms that don't use direct marketing - usually very badly.

What makes Rowan's business special is the idea behind it - of getting the customers to support wine-makers too small to afford big marketing by buying their stuff. It is genuinely a social approach. You can even become a Wine Angel."

I have interviewed Rowan for an hour as part of my Commonsense Marketing course. Fittingly the first time we ever met, a few years ago, we spent a fair amount of time drinking wine.

He really is one of the very few people who has a bona fide social ingredient in their business. Not just in sales, either. I believe that when he set up Naked Wines every one of his colleagues at his previous firm joined him.

By coincidence yesterday I saw James Brown who founded Loaded magazine make a hilarious speech here in Sweden in which he said one thing I profoundly agree with - that success is all about finding the right people.

He also said that "Luck is when ambition meets opportunity."

My partner Al who tries desperately hard to educate me about things like Adwords has a saying I love: "Failure cannot live with persistence."

Many years ago I asked Ken Roman, my boss at Ogilvy & Mather, what he thought made David Ogilvy so remarkable.

“I am pretty determined,“ he replied. “If something doesn’t work I keep trying for another year, then another, then another. I don’t give up easily. But David never gives up”.

And I recall that in a survey of chief executives not too long ago persistence was the most important reason most gave for success. Of course it helps if you know what you’re doing. Few marketers really do.

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The man Bird and his sad story

The CIM named Drayton one of 50 people who shaped today’s marketing.
And David Ogilvy said he “knows more about direct marketing than anyone in the world.” But don't blame him for all the crap you get sent.
He published his first novel, “Some rats run faster” when 27. Hardly anyone read this brilliant work as it had virtually no plot. 4 more books followed: “Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing” – out in 17 languages; “Salesletters that sell” & “Marketing Insights and Outrages” and "Direct Marketing for Lawyers".
He's written over 1,000 columns, spoken in 50 countries and worked with many leading brands, incl. Amex, BA, Hargreaves Lansdown, Mercedes, Microsoft, Nestle, P & G, IBM, Unilever and Visa.
In 1977, he and two partners set up Trenear-Harvey, Bird & Watson, sold in l985 to O&M. As Vice-Chairman and Creative Director, he helped O&M Direct become the world's largest DM agency network, and was elected to the worldwide Ogilvy Group board.
He now runs Drayton Bird Associates and has interests in 3 other firms. The ones he never visits do much better.
This blog shows what all that has done to his head.